Trigger step

The Triggers step is designed to make it easy to add and manage one or many triggers when developing your agent workflows. Once a trigger is triggered by the user (with an intent for example), or by the system (like starting a conversation), you'll jump to the trigger step and go down the attached path. This guide will cover adding triggers, understanding trigger types, and managing the scope of triggers.

The Trigger step is similar to the old Intent step, but supports multiple triggers (like the start of a flow, or an intent).

Adding triggers to workflows

1. Start with a workflow:
   1. When you create a new workflow in Voiceflow, an empty trigger step is automatically included by default.
2. Add triggers to the step:
   1. Select the Triggers Step: Select an existing Trigger step within your workflow to open the editor.
   2. Configure your triggers:
      1. Add one or many existing intent triggers to this step.
      2. Optionally modify the required entities and/or entity reprompts directly from editor.
      3. You can include multiple triggers within this single step by select the + button in the Triggers section.
3. Optional: Add additional trigger steps to workflow:
   1. If you require other trigger steps within the same workflow, you can create them by right-clicking on the canvas and selecting “Add Trigger”.
   2. Follow the same process to configure these additional triggers as needed.

Trigger types

Intents

The primary trigger type in Voiceflow is conversation intents, managed in the Intents CMS. These are types of triggers that can be invoked when a user query matches an available intent using your NLU or LLM intent classification settings. More details on Intents can be found here.

Default start event

The Start step (available by default in your Home workflow) will include a non-editable Default start event. This event is triggered whenever the conversation is launched.

Available from workflows setting

You can define the scope of your triggers directly in the step editor using the “Available from workflows” toggle. The following options are available:

When enabled (default)

• Global-scoped: Globally scoped triggers can be accessed and activated from multiple workflows within the project.
• Use Case: Use global scope for triggers that need to interact with or be accessed by various parts of the project. This is useful for common user intents that are relevant across multiple workflows.

When disabled

• Local-scoped: Triggers scoped locally are specific to the workflow they are created within. They do not affect or interact with other workflows.
• Use Case: Local scope is ideal for workflows that handle specific, isolated user intents or actions.